


I need you to know that I like you (I really really like you)

by insteadofjust_invisible



Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Elia and Filo navigate being in a relationship, M/M, not really that much fluff tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25815469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insteadofjust_invisible/pseuds/insteadofjust_invisible
Summary: “You know I really really like you, right?” he asked, one hand moving to brush Elia’s hair off his face. The other had dropped the phone and was holding on to his waist.“I do. And I happen to really really like you too.”“I sure hope so,” was the reply, all too quiet for Filo’s usual exuberant manner of speaking, like it was just for them to hear.in which Elia tries to figure out what exactly his relationship with Filippo means.
Relationships: Elia Santini/Filippo Sava
Kudos: 27





	I need you to know that I like you (I really really like you)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Elippo week.](https://elippoweek.tumblr.com) This was my second and possibly last try at writing Elippo tbh, I just can't get comfortable writing Elia, at least not from his pov. So yeah, again sort of a different take on him, more inspired by the softer side of him we got to see during s4. Hope you guys enjoy it :)
> 
> Title from "I rly rly like you" by Baby Bulldog.

Elia was not an insecure person. Sure, he had never really had a serious relationship before Filo, but settling into one with him had been surprisingly chill and easygoing, neither of them too kin on grand gestures or declarations of love, despite their raucous personalities. That was why Elia was incredibly surprised to open the door to their place and come face to face with his boyfriend and Marti chilling on the couch, Filo resting his head on Marti’s lap as Marti`s fingers caressed through the other boy’s hair. For a moment there, he was utterly confused as to what he was feeling, why his heart was clenching on his chest and his mind was jumping to so many what if scenarios and his hands were closing in fists, that when it hit him that it was jealousy, he became even more confused: since when was he a jealous person?

His first response was of course he was not jealous, jealousy only belongs to those who are insecure of what they have, or rather, of what they don’t have. Then, of course, Elia starts to wonder if his newfound jealousy wasn’t stemming from an insecurity regarding his and Filo’s relationship. Which it wasn’t, surely. Chill and easygoing was the definition of their relationship, meaning it was the kind of relationship where there was no place for such a feeling. Right?

He didn’t know who he could ask about it either. Marti was a jealous asshole, everybody knew that, especially after the whole Luai situation and what a mess that was over last spring. Nico was not as bad as his boyfriend, but he was not exactly, well, chill nor easygoing about other guys - or girls for what mattered - taking interest in Marti. Gio seemed alright, but jealousy and insecurity had been what broke his and Eva’s relationship the first time around, so he wasn’t sure. Luca… no, just no. Elia might love Luca to death, but he wasn’t about to ask him for relationship advice. Who else?

Elia was taken off his stupor by the sound of the door opening behind him, a little more unceremoniously than when he had done the same just a minute or two beforehand, highly uncharacteristic of Eleonora, actually, and then everyone was just still in place, trying to understand what was going on.

“Did you guys come together?” either Filo or Marti asked, Marti’s hand frozen in place on Filippo’s head.

“What?”

“No, Sana just dropped me off. Elia is just standing here?”

“Got distracted by a text,” was Elia’s excuse, finally fully aware of his surroundings and everyone looking at him strangely, so he shook his phone around to prove his point. Filo finally half-raised himself off of Marti’s lap, resting on his forearms.

“Thought you weren’t done until 6pm, Eli.”

“Last class got cancelled. Didn’t think to text ahead.” Filo flipped his hand as to say it was nothing, completely pushing himself off of Marti then, patting his legs in thanks and getting up to properly greet Elia with a kiss by the door.

“Hi. How was your day?”

“Good,” Elia replied, at long last setting his bag down by the door and taking his shoes off. “Yours?”

“It was alright. The band we had booked for the fundraiser on Saturday just told us they can’t play anymore, no explanation, so I spent the whole afternoon trying to find someone else with no luck.”

“I suggested you and Gio but Filo argued they wanted someone good,” Marti said from his spot on the couch, speaking up for the first time since Elia and Eleonora had arrived. Elia gave him the finger, while Ele, finally moving past him, muttered something along the lines of ‘he has a point’, which he promptly decided to ignore. Gio and he were decently good, no matter what Marti said. Or Ele. Or any of their so called friends, really.

Marti ended up staying for dinner that night, which meant Elia had four more hours or so in his company, over analyzing every little interaction he and Filippo had and comparing them to their own. It was stupid, really, and deep down he knew it, but he still couldn’t stop his mind from going there. Not even Edo escaped from being scrutinized, when Filo dropped an arm around his shoulders during dinner and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and that’s because Elia knew how in love (not to mention how absolutely straight) with Eleonora he was. Hell, not even Ele had escaped being a target of his damned intrusive thoughts, when she and Filo started a water and soap fight while doing the dishes and he dropped her over his shoulder, running like crazy to the living room to drop her on the couch, both laughing breathless while Edo and Elia watched from the other side of the room. 

At one point during the night, Elia started to wonder if the problem was the fact that he and Filo had sort of skipped the friends phase of their relationship, so that was what they were missing - the casual intimacy of getting to know someone without any strings attached, of developing a platonic bond before a romantic one. After all, they had gone from strangers to acquaintances to roommates to… friends with benefits and then boyfriends in such a short period of time, the last two steps having been more like long distance jumps, really. While they had agreed on chill and easygoing at the beginning of their relationship, said beginning had been a bunch of blurred lines drawn in drunk strokes behind bathroom stall doors and closed doors during parties, when chill and easygoing was all that was fitting, but they were so much more than that now, weren’t they? 

  
  


A few days mulling over his ‘am I or am I not jealous?’ spiral, Elia decided to go to Eleonora for help. She was as good of an option as he would get, as she knew both of them, so she would be able to see both sides, and he knew she would be kind enough about it all, different than, say, Marti, who would spend at least 15 minutes making fun of Elia before even considering to give serious advice. Besides, the only other person who would probably hear about it from Ele was Edo, which, since they all lived together, it was not like he wouldn’t know it eventually (if back in his third year of liceo someone had told Elia he would be living with the new girl, her older gay brother, and rich king Incanti during university, he would have thought that person had been abducted by aliens or worse, but here he was. Dating one of them nonetheless too). So Eleonora it was. Elia took advantage of the next Saturday morning to seek her out, when Filo was out scouting for a photography project and Edo was grocery shopping, finding her studying in her bedroom, soft music playing from the loudspeakers. 

“Oh, hey Elia, didn’t see you there,” Ele jumped in place when she went to stretch her neck and noticed her brother-in-law standing by her door. Recovered from the scare, she waited for Elia to say something back, but when he remained silent, her brows furrowed in “do you need anything?”

“I…” Elia scratched at the back of his neck, suddenly wishing he had tried to get to know Eleonora better before so that this wouldn’t be so awkward, “I need relationship advice.”

“From me?”

Elia nodded, but Eleonora’s confusion didn’t falter. After a few seconds that felt more than excruciating for Elia, she moved some of her books to the side, patting the now empty space in the bed in front of her. He sat down quickly, before she changed her mind. Or, more likely, he did.

“So, what can I do for you? Is everything alright between you and Filo? Because I swear to God, if he needs an earful, I’ll be more than glad to provide, free of charge.”

Elia chuckled. For as much as he tried to stay out of the siblings’ bickering, he never succeeded much, and if someone was going to hear an earful after all this, it would probably be him, from Filo, but for that, he needed to get past whatever this was and the only way for that was, well…

“No, no. Filo is good, really. I wanted to ask... how do you deal with being jealous of Edoardo? Because I bet that are a lot of girls always trying to tap that, you being there or not”

“Aaah so that’s why you’re talking to me and not Martinico,” she joked, gummies showing as she laughed silently.

“Kind of obvious, eh?” he agreed, laughing with her for a moment before turning serious again “But seriously, how do you deal with all the girls?”

“Guys too. Remind me to tell you some other time about the first time I brought him along with me to visit Filo at the Gay Center,” Eleonora shook her head, forcing herself back on track “who are you so pressed about?”

“No one in particular,” he replied, way too quick to seem genuine.

“C’mon Elia, you already came for me for help, you might as well be completely honest. I promise I won’t tell the girls about this.”

Elia took a deep breath before he quickly spilled Martino’s name. Eleonora went through about a hundred expressions in a second before opening her mouth to speak, probably to assure Elia he had nothing to worry about there, which he knew he didn’t, so he quickly held his hands up to ask her to let him continue.

“I know there’s nothing going on there and there would never, it’s just… remember that day you came in and I was stuck at the door? Well, that was the first time I had seen Marti and Filo like that, and I’ve always known they’re close, but we are usually in public when we hang out, and, God, Marti barely touches Nico as it is, let alone Filo or any of us, so it surprised me?” Elia paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and giving himself some time to reorganize his thoughts. Eleonora had stopped looking at him and was absent-mindedly studying the book in front of her, pen tapping against it. “And then I realized it was more than just surprise about them being close or affectionate with each other or whatever, and I don’t even know if jealousy is the right word because I don’t think I’m jealous? But Filo is also my first real, serious relationship and it’s not like I’m much used to seeing him being affectionate with others because he respects Marti’s space when we are out and about and it’s not like I visit him at the center all that much and-

Ele cut him off with a hand on his knee and a plea for him to please slow down, “I think you should talk to my brother about this,” she started carefully, but quickly shushed him down again when he made a go at a rebuttal, “no no no, hear me out. I do get jealous of the girls or the guys who hit on Edo, but I mean, I understand the appeal, so it’s not like I can blame them,” she smiled at him, an welcomed poor attempt of lighting the mood. To be honest, Elia could see the appeal too. The girl continued, “I also know Edo loves me and would never do anything of sorts, but you know what? I also feel jealous of the Villa boys sometimes, which sounds so ridiculous when I say it out loud, but it’s true. You know what helps though? Talking to Edo about it. He feels jealous of the girls sometimes too, hell, even of Filippo, because that’s normal. We all do. And I don’t know how much you know about how Edo and I got together, but it was messy, and in parts it only got as messy as it did because we couldn’t communicate very well. So we learned our lesson. Or just look at Marti and Nico, their whole attempt at a break up during the spring wouldn’t have happened if they had just talked it over too. Or Gio and Eva the first time around. There are plenty of examples around you of couples whose problems could’ve been resolved a lot quicker or never happened in the first place if they had talked about it, by all means about jealousy too. So don’t… overthink it? And talk to Filo. He will understand, I can guarantee that.”

Elia nodded, carefully going over everything Eleonora had said in his mind. She had a point, of course. His immediate thought had been to talk to Filippo about it, but talk about what, exactly? He didn’t even know if what he was feeling was jealousy, but weirdly, it seemed like it was, so that was one point ticked off. Now, the question was, how to approach the fact he was jealous of Marti, of all people? And that he was jealous of Marti not romantically, but platonically?

Life was much easier when Elia didn’t do relationships, honestly.

But his life was so much lighter, brighter, funnier... better with Filippo.

He sighed. They were going to be having this conversation soon.

  
  


Later that night, after dinner, Elia and Filo were chilling in their bedroom, a random soap opera that Filo liked playing in the background as each concentrated on their own thing while occasionally exchanging meaningless talk like ‘did you see about the new bar that opened in San Giovanni?’ or ‘have you heard Bene is thinking about changing her studies, again?’

“Hey, can we talk?” Elia finally asked, pushing his books off his lap and turning slightly toward Filo, sitting at their shared desk by the window. 

“I thought we were talking?”

“I’m serious Filo.”

“Ok, ok,” he replied, hands up in surrender. Filo turned his chair around fully to face Elia in the bed, resting his face on his hands, arms resting on his knees “what is it that is going on?”

“Nothing,” Elia blurted out, almost in reflex, but quickly amended when Filo gave him an unimpressed look, the same one Marti joked was his stern uncle face, in which he pressed his lips together and tilted his face, raising one single eyebrow “something? Ele suggested I talked it out with you and I promised I would follow her advice but damn it, I don’t know how to say it.”

“You went to Eleonora for advice?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Eleonora? My sister?”

“Last I checked. I know, it still surprises me.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Filippo replied dryly, moving from the chair to the bed, having to go over Elia to do that “why? I thought you all had made me your official unofficial psychologist.”

“We did, but this involves you so I needed a third party,” he started, earning him a look that was both confused and worried. He took in a shaky breath before blurting out “ok, here it goes: sometimes I’m jealous of you and Marti.”

Elia had thought about how Filippo would react more than he cared to admit, but in none of those imaginary scenarios had he imagined that his boyfriend would start to laugh. Not a chuckle, nor a giggle, but a full belly laugh, doubling over himself kind of laugh.

“Oh my God, that is it? I was starting to get worried, dumbass!”

“That’s not funny, Filo.”

“I know, I know, you just caught me off guard, love. I mean, I know I call him Rose, my rose, but you do know it’s just a joke, right? It came to be during a talk about Nico!”

“It’s not even the romantic prospect, ok? It’s more like sometimes I feel you are closer to Marti than you are to me? Which makes sense, you guys have known each other longer, but I am your boyfriend, I just don’t feel like it sometimes. Especially around the guys.”

“I thought you wanted to take things chill and easygoing.”

“I do, but not in that way.”

“So… chill and easygoing but not chill and easygoing?”

“Well, yeah. I really don’t know how to say it, Filo.”

There was no reply for a few minutes, Filippo silently trying to understand Elia and figure out what to say to him. The other boy remained quiet too, but fidgeting with his hands, cracking his knuckles, knee bouncing up and down and causing them to slide closer together. Finally, Filo took a deep breath to settle himself and slowly started to speak out his thoughts.

“I guess I can see where you are coming from. But you need to know that sometimes I also feel lost and out of place when I hang out with all of you guys though? A lot of time Nico makes me company, but hell, that’s not always the case because he is also in a lot of your most recent stories and you guys have all the same hobbies and know all the same people… In those moments I just keep having to remind myself that we have only been together for 4 months, so we are still learning, and we went from barely strangers to roommates to a couple so fast, it’s almost a miracle this is the first time  _ this _ comes up, if you think about it.”

“Eleonora did say you would understand.”

“Well, you might not be the only one going for her crying for help.”

“Hey, I wasn’t crying!” Elia exclaimed, smacking Filo at the shoulder. A second later, upon realizing the smirk his boyfriend had on, another smack followed, this time louder, “HEY!”

“She’s  _ MY _ sister, love.”

“You can share. She’s too good for you to keep her all for yourself.”

“That she is, that she is. But she’s still my sister and I don’t need her with her nose all up in my business, spilling my secrets to you. Next time go to Marti.”

“One, Marti is not the best go-to person for a talk about jealousy. He’s doing his best, but half of his advice still comes from Dr. Spera and the other half from you. Two, he is more likely to accidentally spill your secrets to me than Eleonora. Three, what other secrets are you hiding, Mr. Sava?”

“I’ll let Marti know you don’t find him trustworthy…”

“That’s not what I said and you know it! Plus, he’d believe me over you! Don’t try and distract me, c’mon, I want to hear more secrets if we are having a moment of serious talk and all that.”

“Ohh you wanna test that theory?” Filo prodded, stretching his arm to get his phone from where he had left it at the desk and opening his text convo with Marti. Realizing what he was about to do, Elia made a grab for the phone, but the other boy raised over his head, ensuring a fight about it that ended with Elia too distract on top of Filippo to realize he had somewhat succeeded in writing the text to Marti and had also sent it, or what else could explain the string of incoming message sounds coming off Elia phone somewhere on the floor where it had fallen during the struggle? He could deal with Martino later though, right then and there he had more pressing issues to attend to.

In the form of a very hot boyfriend currently laying pliant underneath him, trademark smirk on and eyes fixated on him.

“You know I really really like you, right?” he asked, one hand moving to brush Elia’s hair off his face. The other had dropped the phone and was holding on to his waist.

“I do. And I happen to really really like you too.”

“I sure hope so,” was the reply, all too quiet for Filo’s usual exuberant manner of speaking, like it was just for them to hear. It was. Their relationship was new and chill and easygoing, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t space for any misunderstandings and doubts and worries. They just needed to learn how to navigate in between those two states, figure out exactly how they fit when letting their walls down and baring their souls to one another, past their carefree and extrovert personas.

The most important thing Elia had already figured out at least, and that was that, in his part, he really, really, really liked Filippo, scarily so. And yeah, he was jealous sometimes, but he was also pretty sure Filo felt just the same about him. So they were going to be ok. More than ok.

“More than ok sounds about right.”

“Didn’t realize I had said that out loud.”

Filo hummed, giving Elia a small peck in reassurance, but following in with words just in case too, “c’mon, maybe chill and easygoing wasn’t the best way to go, but we will figure this out, we will figure out exactly what chill and easygoing means for us. We will be ok. More than ok”

A second peck came then, followed by a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and by then they were not really small pecks anymore. Elia made himself more comfortable against Filo, careful not to drop his full weight on the boy as their kisses became more involved.

They were going to be ok. More than ok.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Come say hi to me on [my tumblr!](https://aspeckof-stardust.tumblr.com/)


End file.
